who says that a photo needs to be sharp?

cold cold spring

There has been some rain recently (finally! a hundred thousands plant dearly were waiting for it), but still not enough by any means - it is still very dry for season and climate, here in Austria, and in spring. But at least rain now lets grow everything, flowers will explode in the days to come. Which is a pity, as I've got some social events on my plate, which will reduce my time out there, with my beloved flowers, considerably.

blue hour

off to work

I'm walking along here every day, on my way to work. What you can see here is the first blizzard of Vienna in this winter, and the first day when we had snow of any quantity worth mentioning.

airport

electric avenue

This photo of course has nothing to do at all with the ancient hit of Eddy Grant (which by the way I never liked), only that the song came to my mind when taking in that scenery. I only wonder why.

indian summer

The last days (nay, weeks!) we had a lovely indian summer, but today's sun and balmy weather will be the last for some time: some cold and rainy weather is due to arrive tomorrow. And after that, one should expect that autumn, finally, has come to stay.

last of summer

autumn time is sunset time

wind

All of a sudden, it is cold and windy and rainy. And it was still nice when I took this shot, it's worse now that I write these lines.

wheat

It is summer promising that autumn isn't too far off, when the wheat turns golden.
And while ordinary wheat is pretty much boring stuff, this one here - Triticum durum - isn't: it's probably the most beautiful wheat money can buy.

grasses

I couldn't determine them not if I wanted to - not even down to genus level let alone species rank. Here, for once, it should suffice to enjoy.

the beauty of lesser plants

It's no big deal making beautiful photos of orchids or irisis or the like; everybody can do it.

The art is shooting the lesser plants in favourable poses. Therefore, I proudly present:

The Very Common Ribwort Plantain, with Background Starring (I couldn't say 'singers', could I?) of Equally Common Meadow Sage and, at least here in Eastern Austria, Fairly Common Austrian Flax, along with a collection of miscellaneous (and even more common) grasses.

the art of hiding

 Hares are not very bright, but they know a thing or two about hiding in full sight!

 You ain't seen them? Well, here you are. But they're still making sure to keep out of shooting distance - be the object aimed at them a gun or, as is the case with me, merely a telephoto lens.

(I tried to move in on it by going round that hill and surprising him from the opposite direction where I would have the advantage of the winds blowing from the hare towards me. However it got wind of my manoevre, and when I arrived there, just at the top-right corner of this image, there was nothing but an empty space left where that hare sat a couple of minutes ago.)

solar energy

Weeell ... not flowing through the wire there obviously, but delivered by the sun herself. We've had some spells of sunshine recently, and even the first frosts in the morning too. This however shall be over soon, really ugly, cold and wet autumn weather is about to arrive.

decay

These are from my favourite wastelands hill. As you can see they're barely flowering, but flowering they are!

Melilotus officinalis

Centaurea stoebe subsp. stoebe

Verbascum speciosum

the realm of the hamster

And I'm not talking about the tiny pet hamsters but those really big ones, the so-called European or Black-Bellied Hamster (Cricetus cricetus).

Believe it or not, I was attacked by one of those lovely, but fierce creatures, obviously for illegally trespassing on its territory, which you can see here:

(And no, I'm NOT pulling your legs - this is a true story. ;-) Obviously I came way too near to the entry of its burrow - in fact I almost trampled on it).

Well anyway, the hamster attacked me from up front and then from the sides, which is when I began to retreat, and before I could even think about taking my camera out of the bag it already was disappearing in the grass, obviously proud of its victory.

elephants and dinosaurs

It is raining cats and dogs again, nay: cows and horses ... nay: elephants and dinosaurs more like! And while hundreds of autumn crocus flowers will be sprouting right at this minute in Lobau I'm showing you a view of my daily route to work. Might look boring to you - but I, having seen it a thousand times, find it extraordinarily beautiful, in some weird way.

continental style

Some say that the 'continental style' of football is what wins games - the style played to perfection usually by Germans (result-oriented) and Italians (they've got even a name for it, 'catenaccio'). And that's what we've seen in the game of Spain against Portugal, so far - don't take me wrong, of course Spain played really good, their defence is excellent and their offence dangerous, but still that's not the kind of game I like.

I prefer even plain-and-simple kick-and-rush over such a tactical game, but of course the offensive 'Brazilian' style would be even better. Portugal played like that against North Korea - but of course this opponent is in a different category, doesn't compare to Spain, right? :D It seems that Portugal just cannot compete against Spain's cleverness. Very well, so be it, but if the Spanish team will go forward to win the title like that I won't be cheering (nor would I were it another team doing the same thing, that is by playing 'modern, continental style' football ...)

air oberlaa

You wouldn't believe what I saw today, on Favoriten Airport (the small southern airport of Vienna), just besides the Air Oberlaa hangar:

Here we go then - the flags of the two city rivals in football, Rapid Wien and Austria Wien, side by side:

Which of course is at least as scandalous as if there would fly the flags of Barça and Real, or Celtic and Rangers, or Arsenal and Chelsea, or even Schalke and Leverkusen which aren't "exactly" city rivals as they're both clubs of individual towns respectively, but they're nevertheless "city rivals of the Ruhr Pott".

Or in other words: the mere thought the flags of Austria Wien and Rapid Wien side by side, arm in arm so to speak, is just inconceivable - it won't happen, never ever never! But still, here it is ...

(... oh well, okay - you've got the point, or if you haven't you never will, so I might just explain things. :) The first photo really shows Honeymoon Air, as you can see for yourself if you care to take a look. Obviously, Dagmar and Georg are getting married, and also, quite obviously, they're fans of Rapid and Austria respectively - so this actually is a prank of their friends.)